We received the following announcement of Rupert Powell of Forum Auctions that could be of interest for some of our members:

I wonder if I might draw your attention to a copy of a rare 17th century book on Chess which will be coming up for sale in our auction of Fine Books and Works on Paper on Thursday 29th November. It is a 1673 (sixth) edition of the first published work on chess in English and written by an Englishman, Saul Arthur’s The Famous Game of Chesse-Play, 1673.

As already reported (Meeting of the German Section of CCI), the meeting of the CCI, German section, will be held in Seiffen (Ore Mountains) from 25 to 28 October. Et al Michael Negele will introduce the Lasker book once more.

On the 22nd and 24th of November, the 75th auction of the auction house Klittich-Pfankuch will take place. A list of the auction objects can be found on the website.

Two of the proud editors could sign a bunch of copies for our friend Bernd Schneider

The Bayer chessclub in Leverkusen had taken up the initiative of the German Chess Federation to celebrate a Lasker Day of Chess in autumn 2018. By chance it was also an unexpected opportunity to present Emanuel Lasker Volume I hot off the press (Article at Chess Notes)

Interesting enough, I never had the opportunity to visit Emanuel Lasker´s birthplace in Barlinek (in Lasker´s time: Berlinchen in der Neumark), a small town in Myślibórz County, in West Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northwestern Poland.

So I was most pleased, when the German Chess Federation asked me to be one of the representatives of the DSB at the Lasker Memorial rapid tournament.

And when my friend, IM Bernd Schneider, agreed to join me on that trip, and Tomasz Lissowski also promoted my idea to talk about Lasker during the break.

Prof. em. Hans-Jürgen Hochgräfe - officially the DSB-representative for German-Polish chess relations - from Rostock was most helpful to get my stay organised.

In the members area, on the page E-mail addresses, there is a list of all members with the associated e-mail address. In addition, nine more member lists, sorted by regions, are now available. These are inserted below the general list. This gives you a quicker overview of the members in each region.

In the News department we announced on 2016-11-08 (Busnardo Biography) the publication of a book on the Italian priest, chess master and adventurer from the Renaissance, Prè Lorenzo Busnardo, from the hand of our member Stefano Zulian. Its title was Prè Lorenzo Busnardo; La vita di un avventuriero campione di scacchi del Rinascimento (120 pages). On 15-02-2017 followed an addendum, which said that a revised version (January 2017) of the synoptical tables, referred to in the book, was available. Finally Stefano Zulian promised : “The author intends to publish a 2nd edition in due time.”.

Well, he kept his word, because recently the second and much enlarged edition of his book has been published under title: Prè Lorenzo Busnardo; La vita di un avventuriero campione di scacchi nel Rinascimento. Progetto “Prè Lorenzo Busnardo”. Ricerca e testo di Stefano Zulian. [2nd and much enlarged edition]. Editrice Artistica Bassanese: Bassano del Grappa 2018; 248 pages, 32cm x 23cm; price € 25,00 plus shipping costs. To avoid bibliographical confusion we draw attention on the difference between the title on the title page, which has (or became ?) “nel” and the title on the cover which has “del”, just as the cover of the first edition. The book can be ordered from Stefano Zulian, email address: gensiuliastoria@tiscali.it.

Our member Morten Lilleøren wrote us, saying that he was wondering why the Norwegian Sjakkhistorisk Forum and its website wasn’t mentioned on our website. As indeed this was also a mystery to us, we hastened to request him to write a short introduction to Sjakkhistorisk Forum (see below). At the same time we have added the link to its website under Links/Historical Sites.

Our member Timothy Harding recently published British chess literature to 1914 (McFarland 2018), an impressive book that will interest many chess historians, especially those who are specialized in the 19th century. With his permission, we took away following summary of its content from the blog of our fellow member Michael Clapham who reviewed the book thoroughly. There the interested reader will find his complete review (https://chessbookchats.blogspot.com/2018/08/british-chess-literature-to-1914-by.html):

Dr. Timothy Harding, author of previous deeply researched works on chess history including Correspondence Chess in Britain and Ireland, 1824-1987, 2011, Eminent Victorian Chess Players, 2012, and Joseph Henry Blackburne, 2015, all published by McFarland, surveys British (and Irish) chess literature up to the First World War in this latest work.

The Preface sets out clearly the aims and content of the book which has a special emphasis on chess columns, and these are comprehensively examined in the first four chapters, plus the very detailed 45 page Appendix I. British and Irish Chess Columns to 1914: An Annotated List, describing nearly 600 columns. Chess Periodicals also receive extensive coverage, especially The Chess Player's Chronicle and its successors which are covered in a separate chapter of 54 pages.

The history and description of chess columns and periodicals take up six of the seven chapters, and 230 of the 274 pages which discuss chess literature, leaving just one chapter of 44 pages for the comparatively weak examination of chess books; and anyone hoping for a thorough review of the rich history of British chess books will be very disappointed. As early as page 10 Harding dismisses old chess books as having "little to offer the historian" and it is clear that the author is much more inclined towards chess columns and periodicals than general chess books.

Our friend Jørn Erik is dead after a long cancer illness. He was not a very strong player himself, but he left his mark on Danish chess through his untiring work in teaching and history research.

Jørn Erik was educated as a teacher and worked for many years at the Brundlund school in his home town of Aabenraa in southern Jutland. Of course it was important to him that the pupils also became acquainted with chess, and thanks to his engagement. Brundlund won the Danish schools’ team tournament in 1994 and went to Iceland to represent Denmark in the Nordic championship. This peak performance was documented by Jørn Erik in a booklet containing games, pictures, Icelandic history and geography – undoubtedly the trip was a memory for life for all participants! The teaching material Jørn Erik created for his pupils is still in use in school clubs all over Denmark.